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<h1>About</h1>

<p>RepSheet lets you...<ul><li>look up your <b>elected representatives</b>...</li><li>see the <b>political zones</b> you live in...</li><li>and track <b>news about your reps</b>.</li></ul></p>

<h2>A dead simple lookup tool</h2>

<p>To find your representatives, simply type your address into the search box on the home page and hit "Go."  RepSheet does the rest, showing you who represents you, what their districts look like and their latest media appearances.  We call this page of information a "RepSheet."</p>

<h2>Track your reps by RSS or e-mail</h2>

<p>Once you've created a RepSheet for your address, you can follow news updates by RSS or sign up for free, once-a-day e-mail alerts.  In this way, RepSheet lets you passively track what your elected officials are up to.</p>


<h2>Who Made This?</h2>

<p>RepSheet was created by Milan Andric and Brad Flora, a web developer and a journalist, both based in Chicago. They currently work together on <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com">The Windy Citizen</a>, a Chicago news hub where readers create the front page by rating and sharing local news, blogs, photos and weirdness on the web.</p>

<p>You can follow Milan on twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/mandric">http://twitter.com/mandric</a></p>

<p>You can follow Brad on twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/bflora">http://twitter.com/bflora</a></p>

<p>You can join the conversation on The Windy Citizen at <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com">http://www.windycitizen.com</a></p>

<h2>How was this made?</h2>

<p>RepSheet was created using <a href="http://www.djangoproject.com">Django</a>, a free, open source <a href="http://www.python.org">Python</a> Web framework.  Specifically <a href="http://geodjango.org">GeoDjango</a> was fundamental in this project.  The source code is available on <a href="http://code.google.com/p/repsheet/">google code</a>.</p>

<p>Boundary data came from the <a href="http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1994737478.1229818394@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadefmkjhhmicefecelldffhdfhk.0&contentOID=536900083&contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&topChannelName=SubAgency&blockName=Geographic+Information+Systems%2FInteractive+Maps%2FI+Want+To&context=dept&channelId=0&programId=0&entityName=Geographic+Information+Systems&deptMainCategoryOID=-536886491">City of Chicago</a>.  Information on representatives was drawn from <a href="http://www.votesmart.org">Project Votesmart</a>.  News is pulled from <a href="http://news.google.com">Google News.</a></p>

<p>RepSheet is an adaptation of NYTimes.com's wonderful <a href="http://prototype.nytimes.com/represent/">Represent project</a>, which covers New York City and uses news and <a href="http://developer.nytimes.com/">data</a> from the New York Times.  Represent's developers detailed their process <a href="http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/geodjango/">here</a>, and <a href="http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2008/12/19/represent-and-geodjango/">here</a>, which was immensely helpful.</p>

<h1 id="feedback">Feedback</h1>

<p>Milan and Brad can be reached at <a href="mailto:feedback@repsheet.com">feedback@repsheet.com</a></p>

<h2>How you can help make this better</h2>

<p>For its initial release, RepSheet is available in Chicago and has data on ward aldermen, state representatives and senators, and United States representatives.  If there's another type of Chicago official or different info you'd like to see added, <a href="mailto:feedback@repsheet.com">e-mail us</a>.</p>

<p>Our goal is to make local politics crazy accessible. We've kept version one very basic so YOU can tell us what you want it to do.  If you've got ideas, <a href="mailto:feedback@repsheet.com">e-mail us</a>.</p>

<h2>Live outside Chicago?</h2>

<p>If you'd like to see RepSheet come to your city, you can help make that happen by tracking down the boundary data for your local political zones.  Often it's publicly available on city web sites, but not always.  If you've got GIS data, <a href="mailto:feedback@repsheet.com">e-mail us</a>.</p>

<p>If you want to know when we release something for your location, <a href="mailto:feedback@repsheet.com">e-mail us</a> or follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/repsheet">twitter</a>.</p>

<h1 id="twitter">Follow us on Twitter</h1>
<p>We have <a href="http://twitter.com/repsheet">a twitter account</a> where you can follow improvements and updates.</p>

<h1 id="privacy">Privacy</h1>
<p>RepSheet will not sell or expose your address or e-mail information to any third-parties.</p>

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